The Earl of Clarendon | |
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![]() Portrait by Peter Lely | |
First Lord of the Treasury | |
In office 19 June 1660 – 8 September 1660 | |
Monarch | Charles II of England |
Preceded by | The Lord Cottington (Lord High Treasurer) |
Succeeded by | Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton |
Lord Chancellor | |
In office 1660–1667 | |
Preceded by | Vacant (last held by Sir Edward Herbert) |
Succeeded by | Orlando Bridgeman |
Chancellor, University of Oxford | |
In office 1660–1667 | |
Member of the Long Parliament for Saltash | |
In office November 1640 – August 1642 (disbarred) | |
Member of the Short Parliament for Wootton Bassett | |
In office April 1640 – May 1640 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Dinton, Wiltshire, England | 18 February 1609
Died | 9 December 1674 Rouen, France | (aged 65)
Resting place | Westminster Abbey[1] |
Spouses | |
Relations | Mary II of England (granddaughter) Anne, Queen of Great Britain (granddaughter) |
Children | Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester Edward Hyde James Hyde Anne, Duchess of York Frances Hyde |
Parent(s) | Henry Hyde Mary Langford |
Alma mater | Hertford College, Oxford |
Occupation |
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Signature | ![]() |
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon PC JP (18 February 1609 – 9 December 1674), was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief advisor to Charles I during the First English Civil War, and Lord Chancellor to Charles II from 1660 to 1667.
Hyde largely avoided involvement in the political disputes of the 1630s until elected to the Long Parliament in November 1640. Like many moderates he felt attempts by Charles I to rule without Parliament had gone too far, but by 1642 felt Parliament's leaders were, in turn, seeking too much power. A devout believer in an Episcopalian Church of England, his opposition to Puritan attempts to reform it drove much of his policy over the next two decades. He joined Charles in York shortly before the First English Civil War began in August 1642, and initially served as his senior political advisor. However, as the war turned against the Royalists, his rejection of attempts to build alliances with Scots Covenanters or Irish Catholics led to a decline in his influence.
In 1644, the king's son, the future Charles II, was placed in command of the West Country, with Hyde and his close friend Sir Ralph Hopton as part of his Governing Council. When the Royalists surrendered in June 1646, Hyde went into exile with the younger Charles, who (from the royalist perspective) became king after his father's execution in January 1649. Hyde avoided participation in the Second or Third English Civil War, for both involved alliances with Scots and English Presbyterians; instead he served as a diplomat in Paris and Madrid. After The Restoration in 1660, Charles II appointed him Lord Chancellor and Earl of Clarendon, while Hyde's daughter Anne married the future James II, making him grandfather of two queens, Mary II and Anne.
Lord Clarendon's links to the king brought him both power and enemies, while Charles became increasingly irritated by his criticism. Despite having limited responsibility for the disastrous Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667), Clarendon was charged with treason and forced into permanent exile. He lived in continental Europe until his death in 1674; during this period he completed The History of the Rebellion, now regarded as one of the most significant histories of the 1642-to-1646 civil war. First written as a defence of Charles I, it was extensively revised after 1667 and became far more critical and frank, particularly in its assessments of his contemporaries.
Hyde was aquitanced with the clergyman Serenus de Cressy who wrote an "Epistle Apologeticall to a Person of Honour" (1674) dedicated to Hyde.[2]
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